The Brain that God Created in Us. . . . fascinating.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this book, Who Switched Off My Brain - Controlling toxic thoughts and emotions, because it points to the amazing design of our Creator to shape our brain and give it good health.  What is even more intriguing is that God's advice on how to think (thankful living, praise, avoid temptations, avoid negative thinking, dwell on the positives) actually affects our health.

God wants us to have good health AND those who read and follow His Word as laid out in the Bible get the benefits.  Thank you Jesus!  That is so cool.

Here are some passages that really touch on the topic of the book:

2 Corinthians 10:5

New International Version (NIV)

5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20

New International Version (NIV)

19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Salt

Matthew 5 has this section about Salt:

13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

How many of you have heard sermons and Bible studies on being the Salt of the earth – and then, of course, the purpose and use of salt and how to relate that to being Christians.  Well, I couldn’t help but add one more thought to your pile of theological knowledge.  So here goes. 

When you use salt with pickles or other vegetables that have bitter properties (such as eggplant) the salt is used not just to flavor the cucumbers but also to remove some of the bitterness.  So the presence of salt in your August relishes is done in part to remove bitterness.  Thinly slice your cucumbers, pour on an ample amount of salt and in a matter of minutes the salt has done its trick.  You will know by the amount of liquid that the cucumbers are sitting in.  Some of that liquid is bitter because the salt helps to pull out the bitterness along with the liquid.  Rinse them off, drain the excess water, add a little apple cider vinegar and you have a great summer pickle relish.

So, now let’s apply this to our life as Jesus followers.  We exist in a bitter world and that bitterness often rubs off on us.  When we focus on Jesus and all His blessings for us, we lose that bitterness.  It is part of being a Christian AND applying Jesus’ teachings to our life.  So we become less bitter by focusing on the blessings of being a child of God.  That makes us salt.  The goal is that anyone we come in contact with is affected by our “salt” and they, in turn, can lose some of their bitterness.

Go be what God has made you to be; and go enjoy some cucumber salad while you are at it.  J

Blessings to you in Jesus.

 Al

Covet vs. Contentment

we studied the 9th and 10th Commandments this last Sunday - Do not Covet.  What I found interesting about this commandment, is how natural it is for us to covet and how marketing in America promotes covet.  How?  We, as Americans, are better off than 90% of the globe - FACT!  We also are less happy and more depressed.  Americans (somewhere close to 100 million) consume more depression meds - it is our highest purchased prescription drug!  Crazy!  So even though we have tons of stuff, we are not happy.

Therefore, the possession of stuff will not necessarily make you happy.

Psalm 62: 5 says, "My soul, Find rest in God; my hope comes from Him."
rest and contentment and happiness are available but not from the possession of stuff.  Some studies actually point to the idea that the more we accumulate the more we worry about losing that stuff.  So if happiness can't come from Stuff alone (or is short-lived) AND we worry about losing that stuff AND advertising is luring us into more purchases, IS THERE AN ANSWER?

of course - God is our rest, our refuge, our joy.

Here is the quick approach:
1. count your blessings.  Count out all the things you can be thankful for and say thanks to God for them.  Thanksgiving is one of the most powerful emotions - it triggers the release of endorphins (happy drugs) in the brain.
2. give to someone who needs.  Wouldn't you know it, this also triggers the release of endorphins.  Both of these are promoted by God and we get to experience them and be blessed by them.
3. Find your true rest, happy, joy in KNOWING Jesus.  How?  Ask the question, "Jesus, what are you REALLY like?" just before reading a chapter from Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.  The more you get to know the Real Jesus, the more you realize that you are UNconditionally loved, you are precious to Him, you are forgiven, He gave Himself for you, He is preparing a place for you in Heaven.

Be blessed.

Words are like the Fruit of a tree

Heard this great sermon that really hit the connection between words and the heart.  Matthew 12 tells about Jesus blasting the Pharisees on their words.

in the Matt. 12:33-37 account, the tree is the heart and the fruit is the collection of words that come out of the heart.

Matthew 12:33-37

The Voice (VOICE)

33 Good trees produce good fruits; bad trees produce bad fruits. You can always tell a tree by its fruits. 34 You children of snakes, you who are evil—how could you possibly say anything good? For the mouth simply shapes the heart’s impulses into words. 

The only way to deal with hurtful words is repentance.

And if you have received some hurt from other people's words, the way to assuage your own hurt is to forgive.

Here is that link to the sermon on words:

Robert Morris sermon on Words

blessings to you all, In Jesus!

Luke 9 - Feeding a Ginormous Crowd

This text from Luke 9 really got me thinking today:

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

¹⁰ When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, ¹¹ but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.

¹² Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.”

¹³ He replied, “You give them something to eat.”

so here are those thoughts of mine:

·         Applying logic to the events: if they are going to be fed and cared for the five thousand have to go away and find food for themselves.  Who could argue with that logic?

·         Jesus advises them to do what is illogical: "You give them something to eat."

o   Now they are challenged with a task that will surely fail IF only human means are employed.  Its pretty obvious Jesus understands this too.

o   This is where I find myself in this ministry – I feel like our human means are so lacking that we surely can’t provide “food” for the community.  Maybe what I need to do is trust God who placed me here, trust that He does have a plan and trust that He knows how to place resources here, trust also that with His intervention the right things will happen and He will be glorified through our little church.

More later . . . 

Genesis 24 - Marriage then and today

A couple of notes from the sermon for tomorrow:

Genesis 24:1

Abraham was now very old, and the Lord had blessed him in every way.

How old was Abraham?

· This takes place three years after Sarah’s death (Genesis 23) and Abraham is now 140 years old.

· That would make Isaac 40 years old.

Genesis 24:2

He said to the senior servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, “Put your hand under my thigh.

Why “under the thigh?” 

· This practice is a type of covenant or promise made with physical contact – much like we would shake hands.  So why the thigh?  Some say that this is because it is close to the area of procreation and Abraham was asking Eliezer to help his son in the area of picking a wife and in turn, creating a family (furthering the line toward the Savior).

Genesis 24 - The Sixth Commandment. Honoring God's gift of sex

In our series on the Ten Commandments we are at the sixth (thou shalt not commit adultery - or to put it in more modern day parlance: "sex is a big deal to God, He invented it and He can help you use it correctly so that you don't get burned and leave a trail of brokenness in your life.")

The passage we are using for the main message is from Genesis 24 where Abraham has his Property Manager take a 500 mile trip to find a wife for his son Isaac.

here is one clip from the text:

Genesis 24:¹⁹ After she had given him a drink, she said, “I’ll draw water for your camels too, until they have had enough to drink.” ²⁰ So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, ran back to the well to draw more water, and drew enough for all his camels. ²¹ Without saying a word, the man watched her closely to learn whether or not the Lord had made his journey successful.
²² When the camels had finished drinking, the man took out a gold nose ring weighing a beka^[c] and two gold bracelets weighing ten shekels.

So my question to you is, "What is a beka?  How much gold would that be and roughly what would it be worth?

Here's a hint:  at that time they weighed out silver and gold on scales with small round stones as the counterweight.